Electronic apparatuses such as mobile telephones, hand-held or desktop computers or portable digital organizers etc. process and store data created in many places and in many different ways. However, before data can be processed and stored they must be entered and translated into a form interpretable by the particular apparatus. This is performed by or through an input device. After the data have been processed they must be translated back into a form readable by the user, which is performed by an output device.
Electronic apparatuses as mentioned above are in most cases provided with keyboards or keypads for data entry. Hand-held electronic apparatuses such as mobile phones have limited keyboards, wherein each key has several functions and, hence, data entry has been synonymous with keystrokes.
Every operation on a mobile phone requires several keystrokes. In order to make a regular phone call on a prior art mobile phone, as disclosed in a manual describing the mobile phone ERICSSON GF788, .COPYRGT. Ericsson Mobile Communications AB, 1996, the area code and phone number are entered on the keypad (keys 0-9) and a YES key is pressed to start the call and the call is ended by pressing a NO key.
The phone is provided with several functions other than making regular phone calls. Most of these functions are controlled through a menu system. In order to move through the menu system and find the different menus, functions or settings arrow keys are used. The arrow keys are pressed until the desired menu, function or setting is reached and it is selected by pressing the YES key. The operation of moving through the menu system is often called scrolling.
Phone numbers and subscriber names can be stored and recalled from an electronic phone book. A phone number is stored by entering the phone number on the keypad. Then the arrow key(s) is pressed until the Store menu is shown and to confirm the storing the YES key is pressed.
As mentioned above each key has several functions and represents different symbols and letters. For example key 1 corresponds to one space, -, ?, !, ,, ., :, ", ', (, ), 1, and key 2 corresponds to A, B, C, .ANG., A, A.xi., a, .cedilla.A, 2 and so on for the remaining keys. Further, * is pressed to get lower-case letters, a key is pressed and held to get the number directly, and a volume key is pressed together with a numeric key to get the second or third position in the list of letters and symbols of each key.
To store a name of a subscriber of the already entered phone number the first letter of the name is entered by pressing the appropriate numeric key as many times as required to obtain the desired letter or symbol, for example three times on key 2 to get a letter C. The next letter of the name is entered when the cursor has moved to the next position and so on until the name is done. The name is confirmed and stored in a selected memory position by pressing the YES key.
Phone numbers can be recalled in many ways. First a phone number can be recalled by name, wherein a RecallName menu is selected and either the full name or the first letter is entered and confirmed by the YES key. The first name that matches the letter string is displayed. A second way to recall a number is to scroll through the phone book to the desired name. In both cases the selected name and number will blink on the display until the YES key is pressed to call the number.
Further, the phone numbers and names in the phone book can be changed through an EditPhBook menu. The EditPhBook menu is selected, whereupon either the full name or the first letter of the desired name is entered and is confirmed by pressing the YES key. The first name that matches the letter string is displayed. Another way to find the name is to scroll to the wanted name. The name is scrolled to change it letter by letter and the changed name is confirmed and stored by pressing the YES key. Then the phone number is changed in a similar way.
A problem with the above mentioned prior art mobile phone ERICSSON GF788 and several other mobile phones having the same or similar functions and menu system is the above described way of moving through the menu system and finding the different menus, functions or settings by using arrow keys or the like and the way of operating the phone and its functions by using many difficult, akward and time-consuming keystrokes. In order to activate and use some of the functions such as find different symbols, wherein each key has several functions, the user must probably read the manual.